Obama’s Proposed Budget Includes Billions to Bolster FDA

The embattled U.S. Food and Drug Administration, widely blamed for poor performance in detecting recent deadly outbreaks of salmonella tied to contaminated tomatoes and peanut butter, would get billions more in funding from the federal budget proposed by President Barack Obama.

Under Obama’s spending plan for the nation, his first as President, the FDA would get more money, about $1 billion, to help the agency better evaluate the value of less expensive generic drugs and $6 billion to cover increased cancer research, two moves that signal a dedication to reforming the U.S. health care system, a primary campaign promise made by Obama before moving into the White House.

FDA Under Fire, but Getting Help

The FDA has been under intense scrutiny in recent years from critics who say the agency is vastly outmanned and overmatched for the job of ensuring the safety of the nation’s food supply. The agency is also primarily responsible for reviewing proposed drugs and medical devices, an increasingly diverse and international industry that is requiring more and more FDA resources, critics say.

In January 2009, an outbreak of salmonella bacteria found in thousands of peanut products manufactured at a single Georgia facility was blamed for nine deaths and more than 650 illnesses across the United States. The FDA was faulted for being slow to detect the outbreak and for later mishandling the response to the crisis, despite launching the recall of more than 2,000 food products, one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.

The peanut-salmonella scandal followed a June 2008 outbreak of salmonella traced to certain varieties of tomatoes. The FDA’s actions in that outbreak infuriated farmers, who were forced to trash millions of dollars in crops at the height of the tomato-picking season after the FDA quarantined the fruit while investigating the outbreak.

When the dust settled, tomatoes were not the only food with an apparent link to the salmonella and it was never exactly clear from the FDA which foods were to blame, further angering farmers and consumers.

Pay Day for the FDA?

Under Obama’s proposed budget, the FDA would receive an additional $1 billion to “increase and improve inspections, domestic surveillance, laboratory capacity and domestic response to prevent and control food-borne illness.” The increased funding is directed to the precise areas of the FDA that have been roundly criticized in the recent outbreaks.

In additional to increasing funding for FDA food inspection efforts, Obama also proposes hiking the funding for FDA reviews of new drugs, treatments, and head-to-head trials of drugs. Under the proposed budget, the FDA would get $1.1 billion to pay for the increased review of proposed drugs. There has been a call by many consumers to increase the use of cheaper, generic drugs, which have been shown to work just as well, if not better, than costlier brand-name and patented drugs.

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